The SkyCam project uses an automated camera system to periodically record images of the entire sky from dusk until dawn. These images will be incorporated into other learning projects that include real-time scientific data as dynamic curricular content. It is intended that this will be a resource for instructors that don't have access to astronomical equipment and will provide a richer learning experience for students working with the materials.[1]

An all-sky camera has been installed on the roof of Ladd Observatory at the Department of Physics, Brown University. This project will document the setup, configuration and operation of the camera. It will also show examples of how these images could be used.

The image at the top of this page is an example of dynamic inclusion of content. A computer program automatically uploads a new image and updates the caption each night. Depending on the local weather the image could be overexposed due to thick cloud cover illuminated by city street lights or it might show stars. On rare occasions you might see a meteor. Visit again tomorrow to view a new image.

In all of these images: north is at right, east is at bottom, and the zenith is at center. The image covers a very wide view of the sky. It is similar to what you would see lying on the ground looking straight up.

The Night Sky Live project[2] was a network of all sky cameras (called CONCAM for CONtinuous CAMera) used to take images of the entire sky all night long. The cameras were permanently mounted at a number of astronomical observatories.

The images were then analyzed using this software and the data was made freely available for scientific and educational use. This data was then used in the analysis of meteor trails to provided information regarding meteor atmospheric trajectories.[4] It was also used to capture and characterize optical transients.[5] The Night Sky Project is no longer active as of 2007, see State of the Night Sky Live Project. Below are some images from the network. The bright streak in the image from Mauna Kea is a fireball from the Leonids meteor shower.

The Night Sky Live CONCAM installations were very expensive which caused some observatories to seek lower cost alternatives.[6] This projects describes one such low cost alternative installed at the Ladd Observatory.

The camera is located in an urban environment where there are many street lights and other sources of light pollution. The camera is very sensitive and will produce overexposed images of the full moon. The camera can not be used during the daytime for this reason. It is important to mount the camera in a location where there is no direct artificial light which could wash out the details of dim astronomical sources such as meteors. The camera was mounted adjacent to the observatory dome, but great care was taken to prevent the dome from appearing in the field of view of the camera. Light from the sky (street light scattered from clouds) would reflect off the dome and degrade the image quality. This would also cause problems with the auto-contrast adjustment feature of the camera control software.

The camera is connected to a personal computer running Microsoft Windows with the CCDSoft camera control software from Software Bisque. A Visual Basic script turns the camera on at dusk and begins taking images every 10 seconds until dawn. The raw images are saved in the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) format for later analysis. During a typical night this results in some 3,000 to 4,000 images, depending on the length of the night which varies by season. The total amount of uncompressed data is about 2 to 3 GB per night. Every 5 minutes the latest image is auto-contrast adjusted to compensate for a wide range of sky light conditions. It is then converted to a compressed JPEG file which is immediately uploaded to a web server along with a text file containing the time-stamp and other information about the image. An Internet bot called Mu301Bot then copies one image per night to Wikiversity using the pywikibot Python library and scripts.

The images below show some of the first test images taken in April 2008 before the camera was permanently installed. The camera was placed on a table on the rooftop deck of the observatory. The first image is of the observatory. The building appears distorted due to the fisheye lens which is used to capture a very wide field of view. The next two images capture the sky and also a portion of the building including the fireplace chimney and dome.

A series of images were taken during the early morning of the 2011 Quadrantids. There was a large amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. The camera is very sensitive to city lights reflected off of atmospheric moisture.

The meteors appear as a short and thin trail (or streak) as they move during the time exposure. Click on an image to open a larger view to more easily them.

This section shows details from the images highlighting unusual features seen in the images. This includes transient phenomena including orbiting satellites and meteors. Also included are image artifacts due to the camera or sky conditions.

The software pipeline used by the Sky Camera can also capture a series of images of notable events such as an eclipse or the Transit of Mercury. A different camera attached to a telescope shows a magnified view of the object. The images can then be repeatedly uploaded to a webserver. Other types of scientific data such as sky brightness measurements or meteorology data can also be handled.

A series of images were taken in preparation for a lunar eclipse in 2014.[1] The skies were cloudy, so the eclipse was not visible. Images were taken during the 2017 solar eclipse which were immediately available on a webserver.[2] The weather was partly to mostly cloudy. This caused problems for the auto-contrast feature of the software. Otherwise, the event was a success. During this live stream there were 68,219 downloads during the day. The images were also widely shared on social media.